Even with the Pittsburgh Steelers down to 37-year-old Charlie Batch and newly signed Brian Hoyer at the quarterback position, few are giving the 2-8 Cleveland Browns much of a chance to upset the 6-4 Steelers this Sunday at Cleveland Browns Stadium.

The list of doubters apparently extends to the Browns marketing department, who will be handing out white -- yes, white -- flags to fans entering the stadium this Sunday as part of a promotion with The NFL Ticket Exchange.

"Arrive early Sunday. All fans in attendance will receive a Browns Inflatable Flag courtesy of @NFLtixExchange," the Browns official Twitter handle announced on Thursday.

Your team name is "Browns." Your team's helmets are orange. Each of those colors would have made for a far more suitable choice for a flag than white, which is the universal sign for signaling truce or surrender. Then again, the Steelers have won 21 of the last 23 matchups between the two franchises, including 10 of the last 11 meetings.

It sounded like a story from The Onion: The Browns said this week that they would hand out white flags for the fans at Cleveland Browns Stadium to wave during Sunday’s game against the Steelers.

Now the team has scrapped the idea.

In a statement released by a team spokesman, the Browns said on Saturday that they were no longer going to ask their fans to wave the white flag.

“After further and careful consideration, we felt it was in the best interests of everyone involved that we not have a giveaway item at tomorrow’s game,” the statement said. “It is something that was intended to be fun for our fans and that they could rally around, and we regret that some didn’t perceive it that way. We want to thank all of our fans for their tremendous support and we look forward to seeing them out in force at the stadium tomorrow.”

It’s surprising that the Browns didn’t anticipate that some fans would perceive waving white flags as a symbol of surrender. It’s fine that the Browns wanted to counter all the Terrible Towels that Steelers fans would be waving, but white flags aren’t exactly the kind of look you want if you’re trying to convince fans that you haven’t given up on the season. The Browns were wise to scrap this idea.

It sounded like a story from The Onion: The Browns said this week that they would hand out white flags for the fans at Cleveland Browns Stadium to wave during Sunday’s game against the Steelers.

Now the team has scrapped the idea.

In a statement released by a team spokesman, the Browns said on Saturday that they were no longer going to ask their fans to wave the white flag.

“After further and careful consideration, we felt it was in the best interests of everyone involved that we not have a giveaway item at tomorrow’s game,” the statement said. “It is something that was intended to be fun for our fans and that they could rally around, and we regret that some didn’t perceive it that way. We want to thank all of our fans for their tremendous support and we look forward to seeing them out in force at the stadium tomorrow.”

It’s surprising that the Browns didn’t anticipate that some fans would perceive waving white flags as a symbol of surrender. It’s fine that the Browns wanted to counter all the Terrible Towels that Steelers fans would be waving, but white flags aren’t exactly the kind of look you want if you’re trying to convince fans that you haven’t given up on the season. The Browns were wise to scrap this idea.